Research shows that images improve your social media success and engagement.

More specifically:

• Quick Sprout reveals that tweets with images receive 200 percent more engagement.
• BuzzSumo reports that Facebook posts with images generate 2.3 times more engagement than posts without images.
• Research published in the Journal of Marketing Research shows that including an image in tweets about air travel increases the number of retweets by 119%.

Here are three types of custom images you can create that support your book marketing messages while they increase social media engagement.

1. Image quotes/picture quotes/quote cards

No matter what you call them, these social media graphics that place words on images are versatile and powerful.

For the text, use inspirational quotes, a pithy message from your book with attribution to your book (not yourself), or a snippet of text from your blog post (that’s what I’ve done with the example below). There are so many ways to approach this — my suggestions are just a start.

Please don’t quote yourself saying something you feel is wise or profound, though. I know that so-called gurus do this, but it isn’t going to position you as a thought leader. You earn that title when others  believe that what you say is so worthwhile that they have to share it.

Rather than quoting yourself on your road to social media success, quote others you admire — and tag them when you post the image online.

Create these types of images with any of the many web-based and/or smartphone tools available for this. I used Canva to create the three images above. The kitten photo came from  Depositphotos; I’ve got links to free photo sites here.

2. Tipographics

Tipographics — also known as tip-o-graphics — are tip lists. I’ve got a collection of them I created from blog post content on a Pinterest board. Each Pinterest image links back to my original blog post on the topic. While I share them on Pinterest, they can be shared on any social media platform you use.

Here’s one example:

During the first two months I started sharing these on Pinterest, traffic to my site from that social network increased more than 300 percent. I’ve recently added a few more and will watch the numbers to see if traffic jumps again.

When I first started creating these, I used a PowerPoint template (download a PDF version of it here). Now that Canva is an option, I’ll test that tool to see which approach is easiest.

If you’ve got design skills, you can make yours look a whole lot nicer than mine. I opted for simplicity, as you can see.

3. Infographics

Infographics incorporate images and text to walk you through a process or simplify complicated data. 

Of the three image types we’re discussing, infographics are the hardest to create. First, they need to tell a story. Second, they’re graphics-intense — they’re the opposite of my tipographics above.

And yet, I love them. They get my attention — and when they do, they nearly always have information I can use. They give me an opportunity to share helpful information with others, as I did in my recent blog post about world reading habits in 2021. I was happy to build an article around that infographic when the creator offered it to me.

Here’s an example of an infographic that’s designed to inform and influence authors.

To create your own, look for templates online.

HubSpot offers 15 free PowerPoint infographic templates that can simplify the design process. Canva has infographic templates, too. Australian designer Donna Moritz also offers links to infographic templates in her article, “4 Easy Infographic Template Tools for Stunning Infographics” on her Socially Sorted site.

If you don’t have design skills or don’t have the time for this, it might be easier to search Fiverr for a designer who can do it.

Increase social media success

Increase engagement and improve reader connections by creating and sharing social media images, whether it’s any of these three or other types. You’ll indulge your creative side while making your time on social networks more productive and meaningful.

Have you incorporated images in your social media plan? Are you seeing more, less, or the same engagement among your followers and connections? Please tell us in a comment. 

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2015. It has been updated and expanded.)

Please see Exhibit A from Adams County Winery in Gettysburg, Penn., on the right.

This was posted on the winery’s Facebook page on Saturday, as most of us Northeasterners were stocking up on bottled water, bread, and D batteries or pulling out candles and matches. It went viral quickly — note the number of “likes” but more importantly, the number of “shares” — 10,666 as of Tuesday afternoon.

I snagged it on Sunday from a friend in Northern New Jersey after seeing it in my news feed. (I’m in the six-bottle zone, by the way.)

Shrewd. Very shrewd

I reacted to this smart infographic on two levels. First, as someone getting ready for who-knows-what with this storm, it made me laugh. It was so clever!

But it also caught my attention as a marketer. I thought it was very shrewd of them to capitalize on the hype while giving us useful information (I did need to know how much red wine to have on hand if I lost power). I tried calling the winery today to learn more about the back story and whether they were surprised by the response, but the company’s phone was out of service because of the storm.

There’s actually a third reason this caught my attention. I’m fascinated by infographics and how they can be used to convey statistics and other information in ways that make it easier to understand. I’ve never been a fan of bar graphs and pie charts, but infographics? They work for me!

Can you put them to work for you? What information related to your book or its topic can be turned into a useful or humorous infographic that will get shared through social networks? I’ll bet you can think of something. It might take some thought, and maybe a brainstorming session with a friend or two, but I’ll bet you can come up with an idea for at least one infographic — if not more.

“How to Easily Create Infographics in PowerPoint”

Once you’ve given that some thought, the next challenge is to create it. That seems a bit overwhelming for those of us who aren’t graphic artists and don’t have their design tools, doesn’t it?

That’s how I felt about it, anyway, until I received an e-mail from Hubspot this morning offering me a copy of “Free Template: How to Easily Create Infographics in PowerPoint.”  I’ve downloaded it, clicked through the slides, and can’t wait to give it a try (download it here). It’s like putting a puzzle together — a puzzle that can come together in many ways.

Start watching for infographics and how companies are using them to grab attention and communicate information. Let it all percolate for a bit, then start thinking about how you can incorporate this type of marketing image into your book promotion plan. With the right visual, it could be one of your most successful tactics.

What new marketing tactic have you tried that you’re excited about?